National Citizen Party (NCP) Convener and Opposition Chief Whip Nahid Islam on Sunday accused the BNP-led government of walking the same old path of autocracy.
Addressing a press briefing following an alliance meeting at the opposition leader’s residence in Dhaka, Nahid said: “However, we have seen this government disregard the public mandate of the referendum and it has also shown no intention of implementing any provisions of the July Charter. They have not taken the oath for the Reform Commission, have not convened a session and are politicizing all institutions, including the Election Commission. We had envisioned a peaceful government and an impartial Election Commission, yet we see this government is also treading the old path of autocracy.”
Nahid's statement also alluded to an aborted attempt at arriving at a consensus candidate despite
“A proposal was pitched for the presidential election to enable us to collectively elect a universally acceptable president; proposals were also made to amend the election process and to explore ways to further enhance the president’s powers within the framework of the balance of power,” he said.
“Our expectation was that the president would be elected after the election, in accordance with the July Charter. We expected that the mandate given by the people, with 70% of the people supporting us, would be met through the implementation of the July Charter and the formation of a Constitution Reform Council; this would enable us to elect a new President under a newly reformed constitution just as we had various other expectations,” he added.
The NCP leader further criticized the retention of the incumbent president for an extended six-month period without judicial accountability, raising questions about potential political maneuvering ahead of future caretaker transitions.
Nahid added: “This is because, looking at the BNP’s past history, we have seen that they have consistently attempted to retain power during such transitional periods; they have made various efforts to do so and have created numerous political and constitutional crises in Bangladesh.”
Answering to a journalist’s question why they are nominating a candidate despite the potential of losing the election, the NCP leader stated that we believe that for democracy, this process should be participatory and competitive.
At the press conference, Nahid announced that the 11-party coalition would counter the process by fielding LDP Chairman and veteran Freedom Fighter Col. (Retd.) Oli Ahmad as a presidential candidate to uphold competitive and participatory democracy.